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Apple has released iOS 11.2.6 with an update that fixes issues with third-party apps connecting to external accessories and a bug causing the Indian Tegulu character to crash Messages and other apps. Apple had fixed the special character bug in the iOS 11.3 beta, but seems to have pushed out the fix early to keep users from having to wait for the next big release. A macOS 10.13.3 update fixes the Tegulu problem for Mac users, and Apple also released tvOS 11.2.6 for Apple TV and watchOS 4.2.3 for Apple Watch.

Apple has announced that all new apps submitted to the App Store after April 2018 will be required to support the iPhone X. In an e-mail sent to registered developers, the company heralded the new features that iOS 11 has brought to the iOS platform, adding that “Starting April 2018, all new iOS apps submitted to the App Store must be built with the iOS 11 SDK, included in Xcode 9 or later. All new apps for iPhone, including universal apps, must support the Super Retina display of iPhone X.” Apple’s page on Submitting iOS apps to the App Store also adds that developers should make sure their App Store product page showcases updates for the Super Retina display of the iPhone X, and provides additional tips for developers on how to make sure that their apps look great on the iPhone X and how to submit proper screenshots for their App Store pages.

Users choosing the “Protect” option in the Facebook iOS app are being sent to download a VPN app that also allows Facebook to track their phone use, TechCrunch reports. Facebook acquired Onavo Protect and its VPN technology in 2013, but iOS users in the U.S. are just starting to see the redirect link in the main Facebook app that leads to the Onavo Protect – VPN Security app in the App Store. The app promises to safeguard private information and provide warnings about malicious websites, but it also gives Facebook the ability to monitor activity across all the apps on a user’s phone. Facebook reportedly uses those insights to spot new apps that are surging with key demographics and decide which apps to buy before they blow up or which features to steal from other successful apps, like when the company undercut Snapchat by adding similar features to Instagram. The Onavo Protect app is currently installed on more than 33 million devices, and it’s unclear how many of those users know just how much of their data is being sent back to Facebook while it’s in use.

In the followup to the popular side-scrolling snowboarding game Alto’s Adventure, Snowman is taking Alto and his friends to the desert in Alto’s Odyssey, available for pre-order now and set to be released on February 22. The new game preserves what we loved about the first, with simple, clean graphics and an uncluttered display putting the emphasis on the snowboarding mechanics and various tricks that can be accomplished.

Google has released significant update to YouTube for Apple TV, overhauling the user interface with an entirely new design that’s more resemblant of the user interface found in the YouTube apps on other platforms, and a departure from the more traditional Apple TV UI layout that YouTube had been following since the days before the tvOS App Store was unveiled two years ago.

Microsoft’s Cortana app has been updated for the iPad, offering a native interface for Apple’s tablet device. While the design remains largely the same as the iPhone version, which was released over two years ago but received a UI facelift last fall, the release notes also indicate that the app has gained some performance improvements, launching 20 percent faster than before — an important boost for a third-party voice assistant app, since unlike Siri, Cortana can only receive commands when running in the foreground. [via MacRumors]

Disney is set to launch its first direct-to-consumer streaming service in the form of ESPN Plus, providing access to over 10,000 live regional, national, and international games and events a year from all of the usual leagues such as MLB, NHL, and MLS. Disney CEO and Chairman Bob Iger told CNBC that the service will also “include an array of live programming that is not available on current channels” and that it will roll out in the spring alongside a redesign of Disney’s ESPN app. The new service will be priced at $4.99/month and will be available for both iOS and the Apple TV when it launches. [via Engadget]

Apple temporarily pulled the Telegram app from the App Store last week, and now 9to5Mac has confirmed that the app was pulled over the app being used to deliver child pornography. When the app was pulled, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov said Apple had dropped it over concerns about “inappropriate content,” and a e-mail response from App Store head Phil Schiller now confirms his team “was alerted to illegal content, specifically child pornography, in the apps. After verifying the existence of the illegal content the team took the apps down from the store, alerted the developer, and notified the proper authorities, including the NCMEC (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children).” Schiller said his team has worked with Telegram to remove the offending content, ban the users who posted it and verified that the app developer “put in place more controls to keep this illegal activity from happening again” before adding the app back to the App Store.

Nike is offering a new set of rewards for those using the Nike Run Club and Nike Training Club apps to document their workouts, TechCrunch reports. The NikePlus Unlocks program will provide exclusive playlists from Apple Music, guided meditations from the Headspace app, credits for the ClassPass fitness app and more. Other offers for purchasing Nike gear through the app also have special rewards, like a free four-month subscription to Apple Music for buying certain shoes, for example.

A new report from TechCrunch suggests that Apple may be struggling to properly vet content in its App Store in China, particularly where copycat apps are concerned. The report cites the example of a Japanese app called “Tabi Kaeru” (“Travel Frog”) that became an unexpected hit in China, resulting in more than 30 knock-off copycat apps looking to profit off its success. While Apple has become very successful at dealing with such apps within the U.S. App Store, the company was clearly not as well-prepared to deal with the issue in the Chinese App Store, where at least one knock-off, an app named 旅行青蛙, managed to not only survive long enough to generate significant revenue for the developer, but also rise to the top of the App Store charts, displacing the original genuine app for the better part of a day.

Google has announced that its live TV service, YouTube TV, is now available for Apple TV users in the U.S. For a base $35 monthly cost, the service provides subscribers with more than 40 live channels from major networks such as CBS, Fox, NBC, and CBS, as well as sports networks such as ESPN and Fox Sports. The service also includes unlimited cloud DVR storage.

Fashion house Gucci has created its own emoji to celebrate Lunar New Year, according to a new report from The Verge. Available as part of Gucci’s mobile app, the new creation takes the form of two Animoji dogs based on Gucci Creative Director Alessandro Michele’s own Boston terriers, further inspired by artworks by Unskilled Worker, a Gucci collaborator. According to the report, the Animoji creations appear to be considerably more limited than Apple’s own built-in Animoji, noting that they “can’t even smile, or look anything other than intimidating and annoyed.” While clearly done as primarily a marketing move on Gucci’s part, it’s probably also just one of the first examples of many more home-grown third-party Animoji yet to come.

Popular team collaboration service Slack has removed its Apple Watch app in its latest update, continuing a trend that began last year with major players such as Google, Amazon, eBay, Twitter, and Transit all phasing out Apple Watch support for various reasons. While the practical usefulness of the Apple Watch Slack app was open to debate, it did provide users with a few additional capabilities, the company added in the release notes for the latest update that “receiving and replying to messages from your wrist works the same as before,” which will continue to be supported courtesy of normal watchOS rich notifications.

Nintendo has officially announced that it will be bringing a long-awaited version of Mario Kart to the iOS platform. With the announcement being made via a single tweet right now, the details are somewhat sketchy, but we do know that the application, which will be called “Mario Kart Tour,” is already in development and scheduled for release sometime by early 2019.

After announcing that its Edge browser would be coming to iOS last October, Microsoft has confirmed that the program’s iPad-friendly version is in internal testing and will be available on TestFlight for previewing early next month, Neowin reports. While iPad users can technically already use the iPhone version of Edge on their device, the experience is less than ideal since the app is scaled up in an unappealing way and limited to portrait mode. While the Edge browser currently lets Microsoft tablet users mark up websites with a stylus — a feature that could be very useful for iPad Pro users — there’s no word on whether that featue will makes its way to the iOS version.

Nintendo has announced (translated link) plans to shutter its first mobile game, Miitomo, later this year. First released almost two years ago, Miitomo represented the venerable game-maker’s first foray into the iOS ecosystem after years of holding out. Although the app was more of a social media experiment than a traditional game, the Nintendo name and marketing machine behind it resulted in a lot of hype, making its relatively short life somewhat surprising, although perhaps not entirely unexpected considering that Nintendo has moved on into considerably more popular traditional games for the iOS platform. In the announcement, Nintendo says that it will stop selling in-app currency as of today, with the service shutting down entirely on May 9. [via The Verge]

Nuvyyo has released a software update for its Tablo Over-The-Air DVR (iLounge rating: A-) bringing the more advanced and flexible scheduling and recording management tools that many users have been waiting for. The new features, which are rolling out as part of a firmware update to all Tablo DVR models, will allow users to adjust start and stop times for recordings, choose to keep only a specific number of episodes on a per-program basis, and choose which channel to record from when multiple channels are airing a given program. The new advanced recording features will be available to all customers with an active Tablo guide subscription once their devices have been updated to the latest firmware (2.2.18), which is being rolled out gradually over the next week, and can be accessed using most of Tablo’s apps, including the Apple TV and iOS apps, as well as the Safari-optimzied web app for Mac users. Full details can be found on the company’s blog.

Following a major overhaul of the App Store in iOS 11, Apple has quietly revamped the App Store’s web preview pages to bring them more in line with new iOS design aesthetic. The new layout opens up with a clear banner notifying users that they will need to open the App Store on their iOS device to actually download the app, followed by a cleaner title area with a larger icon, title, subtitle, developer link, ranking/rating information, and price. Below that the new preview page now focuses on screenshots rather than a description, with links to switch between iPhone, iPad, iMessage, and Apple Watch screenshots; Apple TV screenshots are notably absent from the new preview pages, however. Description and What’s New sections come after the screenshots, followed by a more conspicuous customer reviews section that features a design first introduced in the Apple TV App Store.

App Store downloads brought in $26.5 billion for developers in 2017, and Asymco’s Horace Dediu has unearthed some interesting stats about how that stacks up against other juggernauts of American business. If App Store downloads continue to increase at the same rate, the amount generated in 2018 will be more than the entire film industry combined, as well as more than the revenue taken in by the entire McDonald’s Corporation in 2016. In the coming year users will be spending about $100 million each day on apps, making the App Store segment of Apple’s business the equivalent of a Fortune 100 company in its own right. And these totals don’t take into account other apps offered from free by companies like Amazon and Uber that in turn are used by those companies to generate revenue. With Dediu estimating that “iOS enables about 50% to 60% of mobile economic activity,” he estimates that between economic activity and hardware sales combined, “the iOS economy cleared about $380 billion in revenues 2017” and is set to approach the $500 billion mark in the coming year.